Clarksville head football coach Eli Cranor talks to his team, core players and non-starters alike, before a team camp held on Tuesday at Cyclone Stadium. Cranor believes every player has an important role on the team no matter how often they get to play on Friday nights. (THE COURIER / Travis Simpson)

Any coach will tell you, “It’s not whether you win or lose — it’s how you play the game.”

Yet, some players turn up to every practice, run every drill and take every hit, but rarely step on the court or field on game night.

They are sometimes called bench warmers. But many would take offense to the laziness such a term implies. Many know going in they’ll never start, but they turn up anyway.

“I never questioned whether or not I’d get to start,” former Russellville Cyclones basketball player Corey Runion said. “In my mind, I knew the truth.”

Runion, who graduated in 2012, played roughly 2-3 minutes per game provided Russellville was “winning or losing really badly.” He played every year from middle school up, except his eighth-grade year.

He never quit. He never even considered it.

“Honestly, my love for the game was greater than any kind of playing time I could have had. It was just being around those guys meant more to me than playing,” he said.

Ethan Chernivec was in a similar position. Chernivec, who graduated in 2014, played “a couple minutes every few games” for the Cyclones throughout his high school career. For him it was about removing selfishness and remaining humble.

“It’s not all about you,” he said. “I knew when I started I wasn’t going to get to play a whole lot, because the other players were so talented. For me, it was about being a role model for the younger kids. It’s not about how much you get to play. Playing for coach [Codey] Mann is one of the best experiences. You’re always going to remember having that from high school.”

Russellville head basketball coach Codey Mann’s influence was so pervasive it inspired Runion to pursue coaching in college. Runion is currently studying social studies education at Arkansas Tech University (ATU) with hopes of eventually becoming a basketball coach.

“No matter what, everyone was together. That was coach Mann’s big thing. It doesn’t matter who gets to play or who are your role players. You win as a team and keep pushing forward. Coach Mann is the biggest reason I want to coach,” Runion said.

The Cyclones football team, which includes more non-starters on their roster than any other team at the high school, offers plenty of reasons for students to give up. Non-starters not only get to play very little, if at all, on Friday nights, they take hits during practice against teammates much larger and more skilled than they are.

Russellville line coach Charlie Goodman said he’s come to appreciate them more and more over the years.

“These kids play anyway, when most of the kids in the school don’t have the courage to even try,” he said. “I’ve learned a few things over the years. Maybe it took too long, but I’ve learned. Patience is much better than the yelling and the screaming, and I’ve learned to appreciate all my kids, not just the starting five [linemen].”

Bench warmers help the team in practice, give the core players an opportunity to play against a live opponent as they prepare for their weekly games. They stand on the sideline, cheer and offer moral support.

“Some of my best friends came from that team,” Runion said. “I still have great relationships with them. That’s when I learned that it was about more than just basketball.”